Find text on a Safari page
Press Command-F in Safari to search the current page. Command-L selects the Smart Search field for an address or a new web search.
- Scope
- Safari · Apple public Mac documentation checked 2 November 2026; no runtime compatibility test.
- Keyboard and customization
- English documentation; key names are written out. Non-US layouts can differ.. These are Apple’s documented defaults. Menu commands, keyboard layout, app settings and custom App Shortcuts can change a binding. Check the current menu when a shortcut differs.
- Review basis
- Documentation reviewed 2026-11-03 by Codex — documentation and editorial review; no hands-on runtime test. These bindings were not tested in a running app for this guide.
Start with the right search surface
Choose a distinctive word from the text you need, then use the page search. If you want a different website, select the address field instead. These two tasks use different search surfaces.
When a result is missing
Check the spelling and confirm the content is actually on the current page. A page search should not be treated as a search through every page on the website or text inside every image.
Find a fact inside a long reference page
On a documentation page, search for a distinctive heading such as permissions rather than a common word such as the. Look at the surrounding paragraph after finding a match: a matching word can appear in navigation, a table of contents or an unrelated example. If the content is behind an unopened accordion, a separate document or a login screen, the current page may not contain the expected text yet. Load or reveal the relevant content before repeating the search. Selecting the Smart Search field would instead start navigating away from this page.
Documented shortcuts for this task
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Sources and corrections
- Keyboard shortcuts and gestures in Safari on Mac — Apple Support — checked 2026-11-03
Found a mismatch? Email pashaseenainc@gmail.com with your app version, macOS version, keyboard layout and the command. Please leave personal document names out.
Keep going
Right there when you need it.
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